Patterico's Pontifications

8/6/2005

Air America Scandal

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 12:00 am



I just can’t bring myself to care. Every time I see a post about it, my eyes glaze over. If someone can explain it to me in 20 words or less, have at it. 10 words or less would be even better.

UPDATE: Okay. I get it. I see and agree with the media bias angle. Probably the reason it doesn’t grab me is because Air America seems so inconsequential. I find it hard to believe that more than a few dozen people listen to Al Franken and Co. anyway.

I don’t think I’m going to become Air Scamerica Central. But it looks like the blogosphere doesn’t need my help to cover the story. At least I’ll stop skipping other people’s posts on the issue.

15 Responses to “Air America Scandal”

  1. The NY Post reports that Spitzer is now investigating. The story, to me, is not Air America or the charity. It’s how long the NYT and the rest of the MSM can keep it spiked, and how they will handle it. If they don’t cover it now, they REALLY look bad.

    If this had been a right wing talk show taking the money, it would have been front page every day in the MSM.

    http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/26675.htm

    Bill MIllan (3004f0)

  2. Here’s a 9-word explanation:

    Air America possibly received $875,000 meant for poor kids.

    Still not interested?

    There’s the hypocrisy angle (Air America’s hosts constantly whine about Enron and profess to support “the children”).

    There’s the accounting scandal angle (no one seems to know what happened to the money; Air America’s current managers have known about the shady loan for more than a year but did not tell law enforcement officials).

    There’s the non-profit angle (why is a major non-profit organization that is funded primarily by government grants lending nearly a million dollars to a for-profit start-up?).

    Finally, there’s the media bias angle (the New York Times ran story after story about Air America when the network launched last year but has not run a single word about the current controversy, despite the fact that the loan is being investigated by both the City Department of Investigations and the State Attorney General).

    Michelle Malkin (dd6748)

  3. A guy that was a director for both a charitable kid’s organization AND air-scumbag “loaned” money from the kids org to air-scumbag.

    To, you know, pay Al Franken and stuff.

    Prediction: As soon as the scandal hits the MSM the guy that was involved is going to turn into a Bush Republican.

    Dwilkers (a1687a)

  4. Michelle,

    The more interesting question is how we tolerate such a double standard. You can be as upset as you want–its not telling us anything new.

    Of course, there is another 30% on the other side who also do not care. So the message has to be aimed at the middle 40% and they don’t care about much of anything that doesn’t directly affect them.

    So, while we care if our guys go bad, others do not. There is a reason for this. We are playing different games and we “think” differently.

    It’s not morality that is per se that is the problem, I think. We can test this hypothesis by getting through this study. If you were to publicize it at your site, I think we could get the numbers to do a statistically reputable analysis (I volunteer).

    Based on that, I think we could manage to reform the message into one that people would care about.

    Paul Deignan (664c74)

  5. Patterico:

    They stole money from poor kids and Alzheimer’s patients.

    Dafydd

    Dafydd (f8a7be)

  6. Patterico, it has an interesting accounting legality nature. There is also the obvious extension to how often does this happen (that charities are used as slush funds for political or personal reasons). I would love it if you or Volkh could locate the appropriate legal mind to discuss the technical issues, to discuss general practices of asset transfer/fraudulent conveyance etc.

    TCO (3c2924)

  7. Franken lied, children died.

    Serpico (4ffef9)

  8. I can’t say that I listen to Al Franken often, but I did last Thursday . . . because WPHT in Philadelphia pre-empted Rush Limbaugh for a Phillies game.

    The real story is that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck didn’t have to steal money to support themselves: they made it on their talent. If Air America, more than a year after its much trumpeted by the liberal media launch is in such desperate financial straits that it has to “borrow” such funds, what does that say about the quality of its programming?

    Dana R. Pico (1d6514)

  9. air america and the drooling pundits

    Michelle Malkin a lot to say about the Air America scandal. In her most recent post, she challenges liberal media to speak out.According to Bore America’s scandal clock, it has now been 10 days since the story first broke. Air…

    Cafe Oregano (ad1416)

  10. It always amuses me when I read a post from someone about how they don’t care and it’s not worth mentioning. “Nobody listens to Air America”,etc.

    I wonder if he lived in Smalltown,USA and his wife (or boyfriend) was raped. Would he be saying it doesn’t matter because no one in NYC reads Smalltown’s newspaper.

    Owen (329eb4)

  11. Patterico– I wonder if you don’t share the same disease that the MSM have. They thnk that there is New York, the New England states and California where real people live. Everything else is fly-over country where the dull witted,ignorant and prejudiced people live and nothing ever really interesting happens. You seem to be California centric and specifically L.A. centric. Why not widen your vistas a little? It won’t hurt too much.

    [I don’t understand your comment. I was born in Park Ridge, Illinois, and raised in Fort Worth, Texas. Is Air ScAmerica some sort of Middle America phenomenon? Is that why I feel it’s unimportant? I just don’t get it. — P]

    john (fb05db)

  12. If Patterico is home-turf centric that’s ok, he’s not being paid to compete with the NYT as one of America’s main news outlets. (If he was, we would be asking NY who??).

    In one way I am very interested in the topic, especially from the MSM silence on it. In another way, nothing about this surprises me one bit. I am glad that some people like Michelle Malkin are on it and not letting it go, though.

    Perhaps someone should keep track of various stories, like this and RatherGate, and see what stories and which papers can hold out the longest before breaking down and printing it. (Remember how “Nightline” started with the Iran Hostage Crisis, now x days in the hostage crisis…, maybe we could do “MSM Watch”: Today is day 35 of the NYT ignoring that Ted Kennedy is no longer in the US Senate…)

    MD in Philly (b3202e)

  13. David Reinhart of The Oregonian suggested that the liberal listeners of Al Franken and Air America ought to do more, to bail their liberal talk-radio network out of the financial trouble into which it has gotten.

    The problem is that the approximately $875,000 that Air America has stolen from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in New York City would cost the networks 432 listeners $2,025.46 apiece, and I’m not completely certain that all 432 listeners can pony up that kind of money.

    But Al Franken could. He’s a wealthy man, and could pay off the $875,000 out of his personal funds.

    Of course, a true irony has occurred to me, to have a man much wealthier than Mr. Franken pay off the debt: it would do my heart good to see Rush Limbaugh pay it off! After all, Mr. Limbaugh is something that Air America has never been: successful in talk radio!

    Dana R. Pico (0f4734)

  14. Oh, I hope Rush hears your idea. I can see it now, “Air America debt paid by ‘Club Gitmo’ merchandise sales.” That would probably evoke a response not seen since the miller’s daughter said, “Rumplestiltstkin”!

    MD in Philly (b3202e)

  15. No one listens to Air America?
    432 listeners?
    The only problem is that even less people heard of Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in New york City than even listen to Air America.
    Good idea to stop focusing on the shirt’s button, but focus instead on the shirt itself.

    Gabe (0f4734)


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